one fleeting moment...

So, John called today and said he had a turtle for us! He brought it to work in a shoebox, and I took it home to Ricardo. It was beautiful--- a painted turtle. All red with intricate designs on the underneath, and on top it was deep green with yellow designs, especially around his head.

http://www.volunteersforwildlife.org/i/VW-EAPT1edit1.jpg

and http://www.nps.gov/niob/naturescience/images/Painted-Turtle-285.jpg

So we put her in the bathtub at home cause we didn't have a tank yet. She was trying and trying to climb up the slippery slope of the tub and escape. Meanwhile, we were reading online all about it.

We found out it was a girl, and most likely pregnant, since she was found on the side of the road-- she was trying to find a place to lay eggs.

That's when we started to feel guilty. We took a pregnant mommy turtle out of nature and were holding her captive. We both came to the same conclusion---we had to take her to the river. We took her in the shoe box to Ellis park, and I put the bx down on the river bank. She immediately crawled out and swam right to the water! She swam along the shore with her head sticking up, and then dove deep, and that's the last I saw of her.

We feel good, and we know we did the right thing! I hope she has lots of babies, and from now on whenever we see a turtle, we are taking it to a river.

We enjoyed Donatello while we had him-- or her. We hope she's happy!